Just One Yesterday
by kuuderechick
Summary: After a year of irresponsibility that consequently got her suspended from university, Mimi returns to her dreaded home town where she's forced to face the ghosts of her past and the secrets that she never wanted to tell. MultiPairing - Michi, Sorato, Takari. Rating may change as I move forward.


_**One More Yesterday**_

_After a year of irresponsibility that consequently got her suspended from university, Mimi returns to her dreaded home town where she's forced to face the ghosts of her past and the secrets that she never wanted to tell. MultiPairing - Michi, Sorato, Takari_

I'd just like to point out that this is a Sorato and Takari fic as well, even though they don't show up in the first chapter much. Written while heavily under the effect of sweet FOB music and nine in the morning-ness, enjoy.

* * *

_This is the story of how they met_  
_Her picture was on the back of a pack of cigarettes_  
_When she touched him he turned ruby red_  
_A story that they'll never forget_  
_Never forget_

Of all the paths she had imagined her life going down, she never expected that she'd abandon all possibilities, trip and fall all the way back where she came from.  
It was amusing in a way, this was exactly the scenario she had promised herself would never happen.

"That's the house, the one with the apple tree up front." She pointed out.

The driver nodded, leading the vehicle towards a buttercup three-story home, decorated with hedges and a large flowerbed.

22-year-old Mimi Tachikawa stepped out of the car, clutching her handbag as tightly as she could, as if that was the last evidence that she had previously passed the border of the small town she stood in.

"Need help?"

She turned around and allowed her lips to curl upwards at the blond with two hands on the steering wheel, in a hurry to step on the pedal his foot hovered over and speed out of this place as fast as he had left it before.

"No, it's okay." She said, heading back to the trunk and giving it a pat. "Tell Sora to keep those last few boxes around, alright? Maybe I'll be back earlier than expected."

He nodded and with a huff of agony, he crept the door open and placed his foot on the street.

"It's not made of plasma, Matt."

He looked down at his shoes and the grey, rocky ground under it which was traced with car tracks and evidence of life in the area. "It feels like it is." Wincing, he climbed out of the vehicle and paced towards the girl in the burgundy coat, placing a hand on her shoulder.

Mimi turned her head and looked upwards at his blue eyes, a silent agreement to stay safe floated in the air between them. "Don't worry", she whispered. Matt Ishida wrapped his arms around the small-waist girl, giving her the last bit of comfort that he would be able to give for a while.

"I'll call you, alright?" He unloaded the last bag and placed it on the pavement. "Right when I get home. Sora's working late but I'll make sure she calls, too."

She sighed and followed his gaze over to the suitcases unloaded exactly where they were just over a year ago when she was _loading_ them into her car.

"Bake a cinnamon pie in my honor?"

He chuckled and gave her one last embrace before turning around and racing back to the car door, as if he had just realized once again what he was standing on.

Not moving until she saw him away, she stepped over to her belongings on the seemingly empty street. Across the lawn, a figure watched her from the kitchen window, sipping a cup of hibiscus and pursing their lips in disapproval of the girl struggling to drag her bags towards the front door. If there had been any intention of going outside to help her, they did not act on them.

The doorbell rang and the woman placed her empty cup in the sink. Instead of letting the cold girl inside, she grabbed a small sponge and drizzled very few drops of soap onto it. Slowly and gently, she picked up the handmade mug and scrubbed it down, as if she had found it buried 20 feet under the grass in her backyard. beginning with the handle, she colored it with soap and scrapped the dirt that only she could see off of it.

Mimi tapped her foot anxiously on the front steps, knowing very well that her mother was taking her damn time to even consider opening the door. With a frustrated, muted grunt, she threw her designer handbag to a corner of the porch and kicked her heels off. Tiptoeing in the grass with fists instead of hands, she marched over to the outside of the kitchen window and knocked ferociously on it. The woman inside looked up with an expression that indicated that the sound of anger against her window hadn't startled her at all. she showed no sign of it. She quietly held up a gloved finger and moved it over to hover in front of her lips. Her daughter's eyes widened as she held back any part of her that wanted to cry. She quickly made up her mind that if her mother was planning on playing stupid, then so would she.

She let her old, close friend anger lead the way back to the porch, where she dragged one of her suitcases in front of the door and set it down. She then picked up her handbag and grabbed a magazine from inside of it. Pulling her heels back on, she sat herself down on the bag and crossed her legs. "Whenever you're ready, Mother!" She screamed.

Aiko Tachikawa continued to scrape the last part of the mug that read _'Happy Mother's Day!' _ in a child's handwriting. She dug through it with a sponge, down to every last letter. When she became satisfied that it was no longer infected with the germs she imagined was crawling in and out of it, she smiled brightly, satisfied with her work. She turned the tap water on and rinsed it thoroughly.

_"That bitch"_, Mimi whispered, tearing the pages of _Vogue_. _"This is my fucking house!" _She shook her right leg, letting her frustration control her limbs. Over the years, she had learned very well that nothing on earth could possibly trigger her as much as her mother did.

Aiko, still moving at her own pace, opened the cabinet on top of the sunflowers that sat on her shiny-clean counter tops. She hummed along to the radio playing on the breakfast table, singing along to the lyrics of a showtoons song she used to love. She looked around her kitchen, double checking there was nothing else that needed to be done and finally made her way towards the front door.

She tightened the arms of her yellow knitted sweater, tied around her shoulders, and gracefully placed both sets of french tipped fingers on her golden doorknob and twisted it.

"Shit!" Her daughter shrieked. Having been leaning against the door on the other side of it, she fell head-first on the wooden floor behind her. Her eyes were closed and her body was trembling with the after-effect of the fall.

"Goodness, Mimi." Her mother gasped, kneeling downwards. "You know I don't appreciate swearing under my roof."

This was the last straw. Mimi shot up on her feet and turned towards her mother, who had risen to her height. "Welcome home, dear."

"Are you _fucking _kidding me?"

Her mother held her teeth together, bothered by the constant profanity. "The next time you let a word like that roam around my house, you'll have to deal with the taste of soap in your mouth. Am I clear?"

Mimi didn't dare respond with a loud shriek of curses like she so badly wanted to - she knew her mother was dead serious.

"Well then. I'm glad we cleared that up!" She said, her shoulders rising and falling with happiness. "Chiyo!"

A small framed girl raced towards them from behind the staircase facing the front door. "Yes, Aiko-san?" She bowed.

"Take Mimi's bags up to her room. You know, _the one with the posters._" She sneered.

The maid nodded and hurried over to pick the luggage up.

"Do you need help?" Mimi asked, tilting her head at the newly hired maid.

"Mimi!" Her mother called, heading towards the kitchen. Her daughter sighed and turned to follow.

Aiko pulled a chair out and sat herself down at the breakfast table. "Korin!"

Another fuller faced maid walked into the kitchen, wiping her hands with a towel. "Yes, ma'am?" Mimi leaned against the door frame with her arms crossed, confused as of to where all the help came from. She wondered if her mother had any more maids hiding inside.

"Fix us two cups of that tea Emi-chan got me from Ireland, yes?"

The maid nodded and headed over to put a kettle on.

"Emi?" Mimi asked, refusing to sit down across her mother.

"Oh, delightful girl! About your age, I can't wait for you to meet her. She's so.." She smiled, "Mature."

Mimi rolled her eyes. "Whatever, Mom."

"Sit down, darling. Oh! I can't wait to hear of all the exciting things you did this year."

Mimi gulped, the sarcasm in he mother's words slapping her silly. "I know you're disappointed, Mom-"

"Sit down, _sweetheart._"

"Just let me explain, it isn't as bad as-"

_"Sit __**down.**__"_

Mimi quickly pulled out a chair and sat herself down. As much as her mother angered her, it would be quite foolish to not do as told. "I'm sorry." She whispered, watching Korin as she prepared two cups of a special tea.

"I know, baby." Her mother cooed, "It's terrible, getting kicked out of university! Imagine that. The one thing you never hear of." She laughed, looking straight at her daughter. "Of course, you always loved to be the trendsetter."

"I just got suspended. That's all."

"Oh! Delightful, I'm so glad to hear that. So you can go back at any time, right?"

"Well no, it's for a year."

Her mother leaned back in her seat, her sarcastic smile never falling off of her lips. Korin placed the tiny cups of tea on the table before them and bowed before leaving.

"So next year, you're going to go back and it will be as if it never happened?" She took a sip of the tea, the fact that it was probably still boiling hot not affecting her one bit. "Like you vacationed for a year! The way you did after high school, remember how nice that was?"

Mimi bit her lip, pulling the skin off of it. "Actually, I have to get a recommendation letter from someone who can _write _a recommendation letter. Something to prove that I've, um" She leaned over and looked into the cup at the purple-ish substance. "That I've changed."

Her mother nodded, almond eyes staring daggers and shaking her daughter down to the core. "And how are you going to survive a year?"

"I'm going to spend a year here, try to think of my next move." She played with the ends of her beige scarf. Her mother hadn't offered to take her outerwear. "Matt says he knows someone who can write something for me, he's going to look into that-"

"Of course, letting people do your dirty work for you, as always." She reached over and placed a hand on Mimi's shoulder. "That's my daughter."  
"Now tell me! Where do you plan to make money?" She gently knocked on the table as a pause after every word.

"What?"

Aiko picked up her cup of tea and sipped at it, looking down at the delicate china. "Oh, darling. I've had the right mind to rent out your room for months now. Thank goodness you came back, I was struggling to find a room-mate suitable enough to live here!"

Mimi's head fell to the side. "You...you expect me to pay rent?"

"Of course, you're over the age of eighteen, aren't you?"

* * *

Taichi Yagami pushed open the double doors leading to his office, not bothering to hold it open for the girl tracing his steps.

"That reminds me, how did the interview with Barcelona go?" He asked, throwing his jacket off onto his leather chair. He stood in front of the large window with a view of the entire city.

"It went well. The journalist is editing her draft, it should be in your hands by the end of the day, Sir."

Tai nodded, glad to avoid disappointing his father. It had been a little over two years since he'd inherited the world-wide sports magazine, _Bend it_, from his father and he was always looking for ways to top previous editions.

"Open the curtains, Sayuri. You know I hate it when you close them."

The black-haired girl raced towards the window and dragged the large curtain open. "Apologies, ."

He grunted and sat down on his chair, spinning it to face the desk. "Schedule the lunch with that person from that company...what's his name? Whatever."

Sayuri held open a notebook and scribbled down every word, praying that she didn't miss any.

"Make sure that restaurant with the things and the lions outside knows I want a private room for my reservations, call that reporter from The New York Times and confirm our interview, call the airport and let them know I'll be using the jet tomorrow, and tell my pilot, too."

His gaze drifted over to a frame set on a lonely corner of the large desk. He held his arms around a brunette woman, whose smile indicated that she did it professionally.

"Call my fiancée, tell her that we're having dinner at that place I told you about tonight."

"Yes sir", Sayuri said. She stood for a minute to make sure he didn't want anything else and slowly turned towards the exit.

"Also, how's that search for my second assistant going?"

"Oh yes! I apologize this slipped my mind. Your mother called and she asks that you hire a daughter of her friend's, she says she needs it for a year. I told her you'd consider it..."

Tai rolled his eyes. "Whatever. As long as she's got some sort of degree that permits her to fetch coffee, hire her."

* * *

Don't forget to R&R on your way out!


End file.
